Open Letter to My Fellow Jews: The Democratic Party is not your religion (or anybody’s)
From the days of FDR, the vast majority of American Jews have identified with the Democratic Party almost if it were their religion. This included most especially secular Jews like me whose blasé attitude toward their faith and toward religious observance in general made such a replacement all the more important emotionally. This same Jewish majority also identified with the cause of social justice and, as Barack Obama among many others has noted, were some of the most active participants in the civil rights movement of the Fifties and Sixties. That was all how it should have been and was a perfectly logical and praiseworthy epoch in the development of our country.
Hello – those days are over! The events leading up to Monday’s anti-Ahmadinejad demonstration by Jewish organizations at the UN put the final nail in an already long-moldering coffin. Jews should no longer align themselves with the Democratic Party any more than they should align with the Republicans. They should act and think for themselves, devoid of ideological or partisan bias. They should first be Americans, not Democratic Party Americans.
The reasons for this are many, but paramount among them is that being hostage to one political party is tantamount to giving up your freedom and relinquishing your ability to confront reality and act in your own interest, not to mention the interest of others. Many Jewish Americans still do this for reasons that are at best sentimental and nostalgic, and at worst self-destructive. But a tipping point may be approaching.  The virtual night of the long knives played out between the Democratic Party and various Jewish organizations surrounding the Iran demonstration, including allegations that party operatives were threatening the loss of tax exempt status over Sarah Palin’s appearance, with more unpleasant revelations undoubtedly to come, is obviously causing people to reconsider this allegiance to the Democratic Party that approaches fealty.
I urge my fellow Jews to keep thinking about this and not to retreat into the cocoon-like safety of an outmoded tradition. Change is difficult. But remember that Hillary Clinton – that paragon of the Democratic Party, a woman who calls herself a “progressive†(oh, desecration of the English language!) – was willing to forego the protest of the man who is arguably the most significant enemy of the Jews since Hitler for partisan and (most likely) personal pique reasons. How morally repellent is that!
And then Joseph Biden told us he was busy–too busy to protest a nuclear-armed madman who fervently believes that his mysterious Twelfth Imam (Mahdi) is destined to unite a chaotic globe under Allah. (And don’t tell me that evangelicals believe similar things. If you think there is an equation between evangelicals and Khomeinist Islamists, you need a cold bath.)
No, those Democrats thought of themselves and their party first, the citizens of this country and the world later. When Republicans behave in a similar reprehensible manner, we should condemn them with all ferocity.  But fellow Jews, stop being slaves to the Democratic Party. End this illicit love affair – not just for your own good, but for the good of humanity.
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September 22nd, 2008 at 6:47 am
Nice article, but why so mean to republicans? In my life the only party has has untirelessly supported the Isreali state has been the Republicans. Think of Carter, remember he does not think you should exist. Clinton only cared because he thought it would help his legacy. Just wondering why people think the R is bad when we have helped so many stay free.
September 22nd, 2008 at 9:05 am
Some religions are socially liberal, and so the people who belong to those religions vote in accordance with that social liberalism.
Such is the case here.
It is no surprise.
And it will continue in perpetuity.
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:12 am
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September 22nd, 2008 at 5:31 pm
When I meet somebody for the first time sometimes the conversation comes around to where your family is from. Jews that I meet for the first time when asked about their background will almost invariably say they are Jewish before they say that their family came from Austria or Poland or wherever they are from, that is, they identify themselves as Jewish first, with any other national loyalty coming second. And that includes their view of their American citizenship, they are Jewish first, American second. And it is tough to maintain a strong desire to maintain what is second in your priority scheme. It is a very tribal view and therefore very primitive.
Unfortunately for them, Jews have a lot at stake in maintaining their belief system and their tribal loyalties, more than 5,000 years of pride in their continuity (no matter how dismal the ride has been) and that’s a lot of crow to eat if they finally admit to themselves that maybe their “way of life” is not quite suited to the early 21st century. If Israel is any example it seems that their beliefs drift toward the socialist. Many Russian Jews were instrumental in founding the USSR and many American Jews were members of the CPUSA. It has taken the Jews some 2,000 years give or take since their last ouster from their alleged homeland to find help to “reclaim” it – and that came from Britain and the US post WWI up to WW2 – and it still isnt going all that well. Judaism is one of the slowest growing religions in the world and seems to primarily grow through births not conversions, so it is not a very attractive religion to outsiders. Since the ideas of the ancient greeks (Aristotle et al) have taken hold in the west and culminated in the declaration of independence, it’s been pretty well proven that in the real world the ideas of individual rights, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are what the vast majority vote for (with their feet) when they come to America by the millions (if they can) whereas an “immmigration” problem is almost non-existent for Israel (unless it is Jews escaping from somewhere infinitely worse, namely the USSR – how ironic that they were such a big part of its founding and then ended up being persecuted by it – oh well, back to the drawing board). Therefore the ideas of socialist Judaism will never win in the real world, only Capitalism will ever win (or do you need more proof than the 20th Century provides?), therefore, for the Jews (obviously not all of them are Socialist, Ayn Rand (formerly ALice Rosenbaum), Mark Levin, Steve Malzberg, etc, are not) they would have to reject some of their fundamental beliefs before they would be able to entertain so-called rightwing ideas. And I have no idea what is in the Talmud (the Torah we’ve pretty much all read whether as the Torah or the Old Testament and it is pretty much just history – with some shrewd marketing thrown in) that may lead Jews to believe as they do, all I am doing is accepting what anybody can observe about people – who in the extreme are willing to die for the most ridiculous things and beliefs – with all their false pride and ego and envy that makes them so afraid of simply admitting that they are wrong and that what they believe simply doesnt get them what they want (I mean, its not just Jews who do that, its everybody, but most people reject that as irrational or immoral, they don’t hold that up as enlightened thought). I read an interesting quote in the NY Daily News of Friday June 13, 2008, from Zalmon Silber, a Hasidic Jew in new york city who was arrested and accused of impersonating a gynecologist to give exams – it went something like this ‘ “Take advantage of other people’s toil. That’s really what everything is about,” Silber told Inc.’ And THAT my friends is a very socialist, tyrannical idea. In capitalism we like to think that we “trade” value for value, we don’t “take advantage”, at least not that we’d admit to it since we know it is immoral and ultimately brings ruin. Don’t get me wrong, PER CAPITA, Jews are without a doubt the most creative and most inventive people on the planet, but socially and politically they labor under ideas that are extremely difficult to align with the modern world that America and Western civilization represents (even with all its faults).
September 22nd, 2008 at 5:35 pm
PS – I DID NOT highlight the word “entertain” nor add the popup advertisement. That was done automatically by this website.
September 23rd, 2008 at 4:21 pm
97 dad
What I don’t understand about Ropger Simon shifting logic is that as a former feminist supporter and anti male columnist in his previous incarnation, now claims that there is no relifious loyalty to a political party.
But when a New Jersey rabbi wanteds his wife killed, he told the hit men “would you kill for Israel” according to testimony on Curt TV. The rabbi allegedly also had said that he does not consider himself an “American Jew” but a “Jew in America”. Does RIS shif gears based on which party may be best for Israel.
http://www.courttv.com/trials/neulander/